A condition affecting 1 in 8 women worldwide has been renamed Pmos, short for Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome, in a change published Tuesday in The Lancet. The announcement was made at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague, ending a 14-year push by international societies and patient groups to replace the old name.
The new label is meant to correct a problem that doctors and patients have long said has shaped care: the term polycystic led many people to think the condition was mainly about ovarian cysts. Researchers said there is no increase in abnormal ovarian cysts in the condition, and experts have linked the old term, PCOS, to delayed diagnosis and inadequate medical care. The renamed condition affects more than 170 million women worldwide and is described as a hormonal disorder with effects on weight, metabolic health, mental health, skin and the reproductive system.
The scale of the effort behind the change was unusually large. More than 50 patient and professional organizations, including the Endocrine Society, took part in the process, along with multidisciplinary health professionals and patients across six continents. The review drew more than 22,000 survey responses and multiple international workshops before the name was settled.
The rename also reflects a medical reality that experts say the old term obscured. People can be diagnosed without ovaries that appear polycystic on ultrasound, and about 85% of women with PCOS have insulin resistance, underscoring the condition’s ties to metabolism and the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Professor Helena Teede said the term PCOS did not capture the multi-system burden people have suffered and directed attention to only one organ, while also saying there are no abnormal cysts in PCOS and that the new name moves away from the incorrect focus on cysts toward a broader understanding of the illness.
The change will not happen overnight. The new name will be rolled out over a three-year transition period with an international education and awareness campaign, and it is expected to be fully implemented in the 2028 International Guideline update. That timetable matters because the problem the rename is meant to solve is not just terminology; it is years of confusion that experts say has helped keep symptoms misunderstood and care delayed. The test now is whether the new name reaches clinics, patients and medical training fast enough to change that.
